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Six Degrees of Separation: A New Generation of Canadian Artists
Over the course of the last decade, the globalized art market maintained its focus upon artists who landed exhibitions either in New York, London or Los Angeles. Despite the record number of international art fairs and biennials, the overall dialogue did not move far from the legendary urban centers. However in the wake of the market’s collapse, the Claire Oliver Gallery recently hosted a group show titled Six Degrees of Separation: A New Generation of Canadian Artists that infused a small sampling of contemporary art from both Vancouver and Toronto. Curated by Noah Becker, the various pieces on view made by Attila Richard Lukacs, Angela Grossmann, Graham Gilmore, Frank Torng, Ben van Netten, Trevor Guthrie, Catherine Heard, James Nye and Alex McLeod are collectively dark and austere, dissecting the layers of decadence that once flourished. Two abstract paintings by Attilia Richard Lukacs, Untitled (NB2), (2010) and Untitled (NR1), (2010) negate the colorful drips and expressive lines of Abstract Expressionism, into a series of white lines over black rather than black over white. Similar to the photographs of Henry Callahan that isolated abstraction within shots of detailed texture, Untitled (NR5), (2010) considers the abstract line as a long horizontal that moves minimally but layers and echoes the form of a pastoral lanscape.
Questions surrounding the contemporary urban city center arises in a painting by James Nye titled, New Mainstream, (2010) The painted image of a graffiti tag filters the background view of a post-industrial skyscraper-filled landscape, disturbing the quaint realist image seen mostly by tourists. Alex McLeod expands further on the complicated nature of artifice in two digitally constructed environments. Charmed Backwoods, (2010) and The Previous Greenhouse, (2010) each pack colorful but fake naturalism along with an aerial perspective. Despite the curiosity and longing that McLeod’s prints generate, these particular places never existed in material form. Ben van Netten’s Gaussian Smack Down, (2010) consists of yellow, white and pink orbs that populate and blur into the canvas. Like colorful lights hanging behind a translucent surface, this piece suggests the beginnings of a distant memory. The fictive environment appears in a series of four drawings by Noah Becker that capture an array of continuous narratives set within a single atmosphere. Outside Inside Outside Inside, (2010) by Angela Grossman is a collage of the social clique that portrays three woman with their backs turned to the viewer, except for one who turns back an empty but inquisitive stare. Graham Gilmore’s From Sea to Sea, (2010) is a circuit of tunnels and tubes that weave back and forth across the canvas, while Catherine Heard’s beeswax and plaster sculpture of a Siamese-twin portrait channels back to the heyday of sensational art that kicked off in 1997. Six Degrees of Separation: A New Generation of Canadian Artists curated by Noah Becker captures the desires, dreams and fears that have characterized the sputtering art market. If the recent G-20 Summit was any indication, America is slipping as a world power. Could it be the same for art? In any case, this selection of artists from Canada present a provocative mirror made by those who have been on the outside looking in. By critiquing the “art star” phenomenon and its ripple effects within artistic circles, this show at the Claire Oliver Gallery exposes the vacancy behind the spectacle’s façade.
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